My tribute (and oath) to humanity

Artwork by Alex Grey

I find myself here, situated in front of my computer at 1am (on a school night, no doubt), completely and utterly confused; wondering where to begin. This elaborately structured, seemingly uniform reality that we humans call existence is really starting to play games with my head. At first glance the universe, in all of its glory, is like clockwork perfection, but study it a bit deeper and you find that It's not what it appears to be... it's all so chaotic. It's all so unpredictable despite the absoluteness that mathematics is supposed to ensure us. So many things occurring simultaneously, too many equal and opposite reactions, I find it extremely difficult to keep track of it all. Can anyone though? Most of the time I just wish I can filter out all the obscurities of reality and comprehend nothing but truth: the fundamental variable in the master equation. My profound curiosity and fascination for the world around me sometimes seems to betray my personal well-being. When finally I feel that I've fully grasped an abstract concept, it transcends into a whole other dimension of complexity. I find myself once again staring at the long road ahead of me. Whenever I think I'm 99.9% sure about something, I'm suddenly presented with an elaborate alternative that I'm sometimes reluctantly obligated to take into consideration. I can only imagine how modern-day scientists must feel. The possibilities of the universe seem infinite, and perhaps I'm too open-minded, because I find that the amount of theoretical speculation I'm exposed to in a day is enough to drive me insane. And well... who's to say curiosity isn't actually a misinterpreted product of insanity? A dangerous flook in our brain patterns. That notion alone causes a massive upwelling of uncertainty in me almost every time I think it. I often imagine that there exists a world full of these delusional, misinformed crazies that I myself (and the whole of SpaceCollectives.org for that matter) am apart of.

But now I find myself here again. My automatism continues to lead me astray, but this time things are different. This time I'm presented with a reality in which I can see a 19-year-old man sitting in front of his computer at 1:30am (on a school night, no doubt). I observe the natural, methodical process of his fingers gliding across the keyboard. A process that very accurately converts his intangible, innate thoughts into comprehensible sentences. Beginning as nothing more than electrochemical impulses within the brain, his stream of thoughts have now been externalized into our physical reality; accessible to virtually anyone in the world. Even more bizarre, the words that this man types at this very moment seem to suggest that he is capable of simultaneously viewing himself in an entirely omnipotent perspective at any given point in time. He is a human, nothing more than a manifestation of naturally occurring chemicals. A byproduct of nature; consciously aware of himself, unconsciously aware of the cosmos that created him. A counterpart to the mechanical universe.

We are thinking, profoundly intelligent human beings capable of generating the most elaborate abstractions of reality; sometimes not even fully aware that we’re doing it! How many atomic manifestations in the entire universe get the privilege of saying that? Too few apparently. We are the universe’s ultimate tool of awareness. From our little spec of a home planet, sitting next to one star in which there are countless others, nestled within a seemingly forgotten and insignificant galaxy in which there are billions of others, we’re able to extend our minds to the farthest reaches of our reality. Humans are the most fascinating and complex astronomical phenomena that I can think of. Why then, would I even dare claim the first paragraph of this post to be written by me? The answer is simple: I, as well as many others, take this gift of life and intelligence for granted. The beauty of humanity is obscured by our own self-indulgence, arrogance, and ignorance. But I digress, because from here on out, I shall view us the same way in which we view the gods that we ourselves created.

Fri, Feb 5, 2010  Permanent link

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